Snowflakes Falling & Contraction Surgery

I love Mr. Spouse. Like, BIG love him. Even when he’s being a turd, I adore the man. However, I think it’s crazy how helpless men are when they’re sick. Completely helpless. I’ve been less than sympathetic toward him and his recent bout of sickness this week. Not sure what’s wrong with him, but I’m sure hoping I don’t get it. I started feeling a little guilty about my lack of nurturing, so I made him some soup tonight. And it was pretty dang good ifidosaysomyself.

I’ve been escaping the germs in my house for even better germs at school :) We’ve been incorporating cutesy little snowmen into our learning this week, but we’ve also been knee deep in some big stuff…contractions, inferencing, place value, and problem solving just to name a few.

We started out the week introducing my little “Contraction Crocodile” {from my Crazy for Contractions unit} to kick off our little contraction activities.

Then we did a little surgery :) I found this darling idea on Pinterest from Mrs. D. Lue Pann at Buzzing About Second Grade…contraction surgery!!! LOVE!!! The kids got masks & surgical gloves and then went to town with their scalpels {scissors} cutting apart words and then bandaging new words {contractions} together. The kids were SO pumped! I put them in small ‘surgical teams’ and each doctor got to perform surgery while the other team members assisted in surgery if the doc needed help. I swear they’ve never been more engaged. I took all the bandaged words and then made a little anchor chart{ish} to remind the kids what we learned. And seriously…they’ve been knockin’ my socks off with their use & recognition of contractions! I’m so dang excited!

We do word problems in our calendar notebooks almost everyday, but we got a little crazy today and added a little craftivity into the mix. Of course, this was Pinterest inspired as well. I loved the idea of this little art activity from Joanna Davis at Our Art Lately. Precious, right!?

Well, we pretty much did the same thing, but I threw in a little problem solving and patterning to tie it all together. The kids had to solve the word problem, create a number sentence, and then write a complete sentence answering the question. Once I checked to make sure everything was correct, the kids got to work creating their snowmen. I had them make a pattern on the scarves to tie in last week’s objectives and then they added thumbprint snowflakes to match the sum of the word problem.

I am still in college to be a teacher. I would love to teach 1st grade. This past term I had a class. We had to teach our peers who pretended to be any age we wanted them to be. I did contraction surgery as my lesson plan. We had the mask and gloves and all too. They loved it and many said they would use it in their classes. I really like your doctor that you made!

Love the contraction surgery! I also use your math notebook with my Firsties. How long do you spend each day on them? Some of my little ones would spend 3 hours working on it if I let them. Another and more important question: What do you do differently for your advanced mathematicians? I try hard to differentiate and I'm feeling waaay guilty that I haven't done so with math notebooks. I have about 8 kiddos who could do that work in their sleep. Just interested in hearing some ideas...I'm new to first grade and don't have a lot of experience to draw from. :)Betsy

That's so hilarious! I so say the same thing about my hubby and just about use your exact words to describe him when he is sick! Us women just tough it out and the first sign of a cold they are running to the doctor or for cover! Well your snowman activities have definitely got to be the cutest activities! I woke up this morning to an ice box in our house. Our furnace died in the middle of the night! It was freezing! I kept wondering why my two dogs kept trying to climb up the bed and under the covers! Thanks for the post and I can't wait to do the "Contraction Surgery".

I haven't even finished reading this post yet but had to scroll down and comment because I LOVE the Contraction Surgery idea! I'll definitely be doing it! Thanks, you're awesome and I love following you!

Hi, I follow your teaching Pinterest finds. I am doing the rounds spreading the Pinterest love at the moment. I've just put a link on my blog to add your latest teaching ideas and discoveries from Pinterest if you are interested. Either link up your pinterest board or a post from your blog about your current faves.You can find it here, From Mrs C @ Excuse Me! Mrs. C

Oh my word! We performed surgery today on the words and my kids loved it. They were so sad it was time to go to lunch! Tomorrow we will hang them up and show off our surgical skills. Thanks for sharing this idea...I never find the awesome ones on Pinterest.

Your contraction Crocodile was the inspiration for my post yesterday! I wrote a song to go along with him called "The Contraction Crocodile Crunch"! The kiddos then made their own Contraction Crocodiles. We then sang my adapted version of "Crocodile Pie" and ate Crocodile Pie!

I would big {PUFFY} Heart love it if you came by! Maybe you can even share about it so those that bought it can pick up my 3 *freebies* that they could use too!

I love February because it is a time to reflect on your loved and ones and all the important people who have made it possible for us to live in this country! Thank you so much for your BLOG!! I ♥ IT!!Use it for ideas ALL the time!! I wish I had your talent/energy!

i love how you tied an extension into the lesson...thanks for the mention :) cute blog! why have i never seen it?! i'm your newest follower, even though i'm "just" an art teacher!joannawww.ourartlately.blogspot.com

I love the snowman math! I am teaching addition and patterns to my Kinders right now and they loved this! I adapted it for my littles and posted it to my blog- with a link to you. Thanks for the inspiration!